Other states are promising sweeping reforms as they compete for a share of $4.35 billion worth of federal education dollars from a program known as Race to the Top.

But Alabama's application for $181 million basically says that schools here would use the money to expand existing programs.

More extensive reforms, including performance-based pay for teachers, were killed after Alabama Education Association leader Paul Hubbert wrote state Superintendent Joe Morton a letter on Jan. 5 opposing them.

(Birmingham News File Photo)Paul Hubbert, executive secretary of the Alabama Education AssociationPerformance-based pay and seven other proposals that Hubbert questioned -- including quarterly standardized tests for all students and a new salary schedule that would give more money to math, science and special-education teachers -- were deleted from an earlier draft of the application.

"We had a very good discussion about that," state schools Deputy Superintendent Tommy Bice said of himself and Hubbert.

"Race to the Top is not Alabama's comprehensive improvement plan for the future. It is one small piece in a big picture."

The fact that the items were taken out of the application doesn't mean the state will stop pursuing them, Bice said.

The Press-Register sought to reach Hubbert for comment and explained to his staff the nature of the inquiry, but he did not respond.

Bice said that he wanted many of AEA's directors in each county to sign off on the 157-page application, a task that some other states were unable to accomplish.

As part of the application, each state must list how many local superintendents, school board presidents and teachers union representatives support it. According to Alabama's application, 113 of 132 superintendents endorsed the final version, as did 108 AEA representatives.

Race to the Top has been billed by President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as a highly competitive contest among states. Duncan said during a news conference last week that federal officials would award money to states that show the capacity to improve and then teach other states how to improve.

There are no set guidelines as to how much money will be distributed, or to how many states. In fact, Duncan said, only a handful of states might get anything.

Alabama is one of 40 states plus the District of Columbia to apply in the first phase. The U.S. Department of Education will announce winners of the first round in April.

Alabama's application is one of the shortest; various others run more than 1,000 pages.

Some states, including Virginia, seem similar to Alabama's in that officials there are promising to expand existing programs.

In Indiana, officials said they would spend Race to the Top funds to push out weak teachers and convert troubled schools into charter schools, according to published reports. Colorado's application said the state would initiate performance-based pay for teachers.

"I don't think that there will be any great surprises," Bice said of Alabama's application. "It's a continuation and an ability to expand into more schools, to take it to scale in a much faster way than we would've been able to do" without Race to the Top dollars.

Bice said he hopes that some of Alabama's school achievements of recent years -- including having the most improved fourth-grade reading test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress -- will help the state's chances.

In its application, Alabama seeks to bolster successful programs, including a math and science initiative, a distance-learning program and an effort to introduce more Advanced Placement offerings.

Half of the money would go to local systems to find their own ways to improve their schools.

Mobile County, for example, could use the money to transform more schools like it did at George Hall Elementary or to expand its new dropout prevention programs, Bice said.

With the funding, Bice said, Alabama's schools could improve greatly in four years.

But Mobile County school board President Bill Meredith said he thinks the state could have shot higher in its application.